Very few know of the existence of this lowest level of Castle Korvosa; traditionally, the secret of its existence was kept to the royal family, the seneschal, and a few high-rankingofficers in the military. These chambers were held to be unholy by the Shoanti, and more recently the builders and dwellers of Castle Korvosa found the chambers to be oppressive and grim. These chambers were used mostly as vaults to store the castle’s wealth and dead, but today relatively little of value remains here. After looting these chambers, Ileosa had little use for the dungeons most of what remained of the Arabasti fortune has been relocated to the Sunken Queen. As a result, the dungeons of Castle Korvosa are perhaps the safest place to hide. Ceiling height ranges from 15 feet in the corridors to 30 feet in the larger chambers.

A1. Vault of Fangs

The secret door opening into this room hangs open, and the air within feels cold and clammy. The ceramic floor, walls, and ceiling are lined with light brown tiles that form gentlegeometric patterns. To the southwest, an ancient coffer sits atop a single low plinth of stone.This room served for many hundreds of years as the repository for the Fangs of Kazavon. The chill in the air is all that remains of the ancient relics. The coffer itself was used to store the fangs, and while it is empty now, a glance inside reveals several fang-shaped shadows burnt into the bottom’s interior.

A2. Emptied Treasury

This huge chamber has a very high ceiling supported by pillars decorated with a spike motif. The floor of the chamber itself is a mess of empty treasure chests, upturned urns, and othercontainers; here and there a single coin or tiny gem glitters.

Treasure: In all, 53gold pieces, 23 pp, and 3 cracked garnets worth 30 gold pieces apiece can be gathered from this chamber the rest of the castle’s treasury has been relocated to the Sunken Queen.

A3. Royal Crypts

Burial niches line the walls of this large crypt, but only five of the seven contain sarcophagi. Originally a crypt for Sorshen’s favorite consorts, the tomb also serves the Korvosan monarchy as a burial site. Each of the five sarcophagi bears the name of a deceased king or queen. Starting from the westernmost coffin, in counterclockwise order, they are Lord Arbust, King Eodred I, Queen Domina, King Eodred II, and (far from the others) King Cardraith. An inspection of each sarcophagus reveals that all of them have been opened relatively recently; Ileosa pried open each to plunder the valuables the previous monarchs were buried with not long after her husband, Eodred II, died. The bodies within the four older repositories are leathery and long-dead, but should the PCs investigate the contents of Eodred II’s sarcophagus, they are in for a shock, for his body is not the only thing within. Ileosa has placed dozens of dead stirges, their bodies crushed and broken, throughout the coffin with his body a final insult to the man once known as the Stirge King for his spendthrift ways. Attempts to speak with dead do not reveal Ileosa’s role in the king’s death, as even as he died he did not suspect his wife of ill-doing. Attempts to resurrect the king are likewise fruitless, as Eodred II has no wish to return to the life he has been judged by Pharasma and gone on to his role in the Great Beyond, and is thus beyond the reach of mortal magic.

A4. Empty Vaults

These seven rooms share similar dimensions and features to area A1, save that the entrances to these vaults aren’t secret doors. These chambers were used to store varioustreasures, but each has long since been emptied by Queen Ileosa to fund her various cruelties and projects.

A5. The Hidden Way Below

This circular chamber has a sixty-foot-high ceiling supported by a huge greenish-gray pillar in the middle. Part of the southeast wall has collapsed, obstructing one-quarter of thefloor space with a ten-foot-high pile of rubble. An investigation of the huge central pillar revealsthat it is cooler to the touch than the surrounding walls. A DC 30 Search check is enough to reveal something unusual: the pillar seems to extend through the floor into a recess.

A6. Secret Staircase This set of spiral stairs leads seventy feet up to area A24.

A7. Ancient Guardroom

A passageway leading to the southwest seems to have once been closed off after only a few feet by an ancient brick wall, but a man-sized hole has been smashed through it. The brick wall in the passageway leading to area A8 was put in place after the Chelaxian conquerors of the region encountered the deadly trap therein; unable to disarm it and unwilling to risk more death destroying it, they decided to wall up the passageway. Ileosa knocked the passageway back down and wasted several servants and minions investigating the chamber beyond, but eventually decided to give up on the area when it became apparent that there was nothing but death within.

A8. Salt Statues (EL 13)

The walls of this elongated chamber are decorated with bas-reliefs depicting a great market in a bustling city. The floor is littered with debris and fragments of ceramic, glass and bronze as if hundreds of containers were smashed to pieces a long time ago. Four alcoves in the southwest wall each contain a statue of a kneeling servant with an oversized head, but the statues are too crumbled to be otherwise recognizable. Trap: Whenever any form of light is cast on the statues, they begin shining with a phosphorescent effect. As the glowing grows, any character in the room experiences dry throat, an itching about the eyes, and the sudden taste ofsalt. Two rounds later, the statues suddenly flash with light, subjecting the entire room to a potent horrid wilting trap. The round after this effect manifests, salt-encrusted, androgynous figures seem to emerge from the statues: these are summoned bodaks, and they attempt to slay anything that still stands.

The ceiling of this chamber is covered by mosaics depicting a huge constellation of seven-pointed stars. A huge limestone sarcophagus lies at the northeast end of the room. Thesarcophagus is open, its heavy lid on the floor, broken into three pieces. On the lid is the carved image of a Thassilonian noble with a drum-shaped hat. The limestone sarcophagus contains an inner coffin of basalt, again anthropomorphic in shape. The inner sarcophagus is open as well, and the lid lies shattered in a multitude of fragments near the north corner of the room. Investigation of the interior reveals disconcerting evidence that the sarcophagus and basaltcoffin was broken from the inside. There is no sign of the occupant.

A10. Collapsed Passageway

Three passages leading further out from these chambers have long since crumbled to rubble; additional attempts by previous monarchs to clear these passageways kept ending in further collapse and tragedy, and eventually, the passages were left alone.

A11. Venster’s End

The entrance to this repository has been sealed shut by a brand-new brick wall. Breaking down the brick wall is possible with a little work (Hardness 8, hit points 60, Break DC 30).Once the wall is down, a thick stench of decay erupts from the opening. A partially decomposed corpse, mouth agape in a painful death scream, lies slumped against the wall at the entranceto this otherwise empty room. The corpse, clad in a rich, dark purple outfit, is one of a thin, bearded humanoid with pointed ears and a pair of vestigial horns sprouting from his brow.This is the body of Venster Arabasti, the late king’s bastard half-brother and one of Ileosa’s first victims. True to her nature, Ileosa robbed Venster before walling him into this room so he’d die of thirst. Venster’s ghost haunts area A89 of the castle above; the PCs will need to recover his body if they wish to gain his aid and advice.